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Comment Amazon (Score 2) 187

by rsilvergun (#44466015) Attached to: Geeks.com Online Shop Has Closed
I'm assuming he means Amazon.com. Newegg is big, but hardly a 1000lb gorilla, and there really isn't anyone else major selling anything online. Amazon's investors are basically taking a huge loss right now with the assumption that Amazon will be the next Walmart. e.g. you'll get everything from them and when that happens they'll jack up prices.

Makes me wonder what America's going to do. Amazon and Walmart are putting the last of the mid sized companies out of business. They're already show that when that happens prices go way up (Amazon did it for books, Walmart does it in every market they take over). Are we gonna suck it down and just live worse or will we regulate them with the gov't?
Government

FBI Pressures Internet Providers To Install Surveillance Software 225

Posted by Soulskill from the a-piece-of-the-action dept.
An anonymous reader sends this quote from an article at CNet: "The U.S. government is quietly pressuring telecommunications providers to install eavesdropping technology deep inside companies' internal networks to facilitate surveillance efforts. FBI officials have been sparring with carriers, a process that has on occasion included threats of contempt of court, in a bid to deploy government-provided software capable of intercepting and analyzing entire communications streams. The FBI's legal position during these discussions is that the software's real-time interception of metadata is authorized under the Patriot Act. Attempts by the FBI to install what it internally refers to as 'port reader' software, which have not been previously disclosed, were described to CNET in interviews over the last few weeks. One former government official said the software used to be known internally as the 'harvesting program.'"

Submission + - What if Snowden Gets Hit by a Bus? 1

Submitted by Error27
Error27 writes: Edward Snowden has four laptops full of secret data. There is an implied threat that if he gets hit by a bus, the data will be released. Let's assume the laptops hold very sensitive data including SSL private keys and password files. What are the implications from an IT perspective?
Transportation

Cab Hailing Service Uber Collected Just $9M of Fares During 15 Months In Boston 112

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the taxi-taxi-proven-more-effective dept.
curtwoodward writes "Uber, the well-funded startup that hails cabs and black cars with a smartphone app, is a pretty slick way to book a ride. But how competitive is Uber with the traditional, highly regulated cab market? According to results from the startup's move into Boston, not very. Figures released in a court case show that, over 15 months, Uber processed just $9 million in gross fares (the drivers get most of that). Meanwhile, Boston's overall cab industry is pegged at doing about $250 million a year in fares. Despite the publicity, Uber still has a long way to go."

Comment The problem is (Score 1) 245

by rsilvergun (#44463737) Attached to: Paper: Evolution Favors Cooperation Over Selfishness
people really don't know what's good for them. And worse they hate being told that. There's too much information out there, and it's too complex. Take traffic jams. In most cities they exists solely because of people speeding to red lights. Experts and Elite have a place. The Renaissance Man's days are over and done. Maybe the trouble is we've lost the ability to tell the difference between a pompous aristocrat and a man of science?
United Kingdom

NSA Provided £100m Funding For GCHQ Operations 143

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the long-live-the-queen dept.
cold fjord writes "The Telegraph reports, 'GCHQ has received at least £100 million from the U.S. to help fund intelligence gathering, raising questions over American influence on the British agencies. ... It also emerged that the intelligence agency wants the ability to "exploit any phone, anywhere, any time" and that some staff have raised concerns over the "morality and ethics" of their operational work. ... The agency has faced claims it was handed intelligence on individuals from the US gained from the Prism programme that collected telephone and web records. However, it has been cleared of any wrongdoing or attempts to circumvent British law by the parliamentary intelligence and security committee, as well as by Mr Hague. The payments from the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) are detailed in GCHQ's annual "investment portfolios", leaked by Mr Snowden to The Guardian. The NSA paid GCHQ £22.9million in 2009, £39.9million in 2010 and £34.7million in 2011/12. ...Another £15.5million went towards redevelopment projects at GCHQ's site in Bude, Cornwall, which intercepts communications from the transatlantic cables that carry internet traffic. ... A Cabinet Office spokesman said: "In a 60-year alliance it is entirely unsurprising that there are joint projects in which resources and expertise are pooled, but the benefits flow in both directions."'" dryriver also wrote in with news that several telecoms are collaborating with GHCQ (BT, Vodafone, and Verizon at least). From the article: "GCHQ has the ability to tap cables carrying both internet data and phone calls. By last year GCHQ was handling 600m 'telephone events' each day, had tapped more than 200 fibre-optic cables and was able to process data from at least 46 of them at a time. ... Documents seen by the Guardian suggest some telecoms companies allowed GCHQ to access cables which they did not themselves own or operate, but only operated a landing station for. Such practices could raise alarm among other cable providers who do not co-operate with GCHQ programmes that their facilities are being used by the intelligence agency."
Security

Hacking Group Linked To Chinese Army Caught Attacking Dummy Water Plant 214

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the bad-movie-plot dept.
holy_calamity writes "MIT Technology Review reports that APT1, the China-based hacking group said to steal data from U.S. companies, has been caught taking over a decoy water plant control system. The honeypot mimicked the remote access control panels and physical control system of a U.S. municipal water plant. The decoy was one of 12 set up in 8 countries around the world, which together attracted more than 70 attacks, 10 of which completely compromised the control system. China and Russia were the leading sources of the attacks. The researcher behind the study says his results provide the first clear evidence that people actively seek to exploit the many security problems of industrial systems."

Submission + - UK Privacy Mess: BT, Vodafone, Verizon & 4 Others Pipe All Customer Data To (theguardian.com)

Submitted by dryriver
dryriver writes: Some of the world's leading telecoms firms, including BT and Vodafone, are secretly collaborating with Britain's spy agency GCHQ, and are passing on details of their customers' phone calls, email messages and Facebook entries, documents leaked by the whistleblower Edward Snowden show. BT, Vodafone Cable, and the American firm Verizon Business – together with four other smaller providers – have given GCHQ secret unlimited access to their network of undersea cables. The cables carry much of the world's phone calls and internet traffic. On Friday Germany's Süddeutsche newspaper published the most highly sensitive aspect of this operation – the names of the commercial companies working secretly with GCHQ, and giving the agency access to their customers' private communications. The document identified for the first time which telecoms companies are working with GCHQ's "special source" team. It gives top secret codenames for each firm, with BT ("Remedy"), Verizon Business ("Dacron"), and Vodafone Cable ("Gerontic"). The other firms include Global Crossing ("Pinnage"), Level 3 ("Little"), Viatel ("Vitreous") and Interoute ("Streetcar"). The companies refused to comment on any specifics relating to Tempora, but several noted they were obliged to comply with UK and EU law. The revelations are likely to dismay GCHQ and Downing Street, who are fearful that BT and the other firms will suffer a backlash from customers furious that their private data and intimate emails have been secretly passed to a government spy agency.

Submission + - NSA Surveillance Can Penetrate VPNs (informationweek.com)

Submitted by CowboyRobot
CowboyRobot writes: The National Security Agency has a system that allows it to collect pretty much everything a user does on the Internet even when those activities are done under the presumed protection of a virtual private network (VPN). This information comes from whistleblower Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor now protected by asylum in Russia. Described in a 2008 presentation, the system, called XKeyscore, can reportedly track email addresses, logins, phone numbers, IP addresses and online activities (files, email contents, Facebook chats, etc.) and can cross-reference this information with other metadata. The NSA may not be able to crack all encryption but is likely to be able to handle weaker encryption such as PPTP and MS-Chap.

Submission + - Pwnie Awards 2013 winners: Barnaby Jack, Edward Snowden, NMap, Evad3rs (paritynews.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: Winners of the Pwnie Awards 2013 were announced at a special event during Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas and the highlight of the awards were Edward Snowden, NMap and Barnaby Jack (ofcourse). Barnaby Jack was given posthumous Pwnie award for ‘lifetime achievement’ while Edward Snowden and NSA were jointly given the award of ‘Epic 0wnage’. Nmap on the other hand was awarded ‘Most Epic FAIL’. Best Privilege Escalation Bug award went to David Wang aka planetbeing and the Evad3rs team.

Submission + - NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden Offered a Job on Russian Facebook (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by DavidGilbert99
DavidGilbert99 writes: The global recession is still in full effect in most parts of the world, but not for Edward Snowden it seems. Just hours after being allowed to leave Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport yesterday having been granted temporary asylum he has been offered a high profile job with one of the biggest tech companies in Russia. David Gilbert reports for the IBTimes that VK, the second biggest social network in Europe, wants Snowden to join them to work on the "protection of personal data for our millions of users." And they weren't even being ironic.....

Comment Turn off the god damn sun so I can get some sleep. (Score 0, Flamebait) 173

by betterprimate (#44454297) Attached to: Camping Helps Set Circadian Clocks Straight

Obviously, sleeping closer to stars and waking up to chickens is going to set you straight. After all, there are no blinds to pull over the dawn. If all else fails, that badger in your sleeping bag will make sure you don't oversleep and miss brunch.

How much money was invested to realize what was innate for someone who grew up in a rural area? What's the point of this? "Scientific" studies are being made to discover why you shouldn't scratch, itch, or not blink. Maybe we'll hear about why bathing is good for us? Dumb monkeys. Can we stop this era of bullshit?

This makes want to stick my eye with a syringe full of mercury. Maybe I'll catch something like a cold or invent calculus.

This is so stupid I ruined my britches.

Comment Africa is the New China (Score 2) 196

by betterprimate (#44454207) Attached to: Is China Wiring Africa For Surveillance?

Africa is one of the largest supplier of Europe's natural resources. So much so that France sends out armed forces to procure them (they call the justification "terrorism" too, PR).

Even still, most of their resources remain untapped. In the next two decades, a large focus is going to be around Algeria, Mauritania, Mali, and Niger as they are rich in untapped resources and exploitable in labor.

Having an omnipresence would give an advantage to China as a global superpower. Not saying it's right or good...

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